Changes to the RMA:
Councils required to reduce their fee if they are at fault over late processing of a resource consent application.
Applicants for resource consent can skip the council hearing and go straight to the Environment Court, if the council agrees.
Councils will no longer be able to require a resource consent to trim or cut down trees of a certain height or girth. Rules differ for different councils.
District and regional plan process to be streamlined, with appeals to the Environment Court over planning rules limited to legal issues only.
Fines for breaking environmental law up from $200,000 to $300,000 for individuals and $600,000 for companies.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10555022&pnum=0I guess it will be open slather on trtees if this goes through